Beautiful Beginning, a James and Lily Story
by bellatrixbella
Summary: Lily and James are in their seventh year, everone knows they'll be together eventually, but no one knows how. This is my interpretation of their story
1. Chapter 1

Lily had changed into her robes immediately after stepping off the platform and onto the Hogwarts express. She wasn't necessarily eager to show off her head girl badge, but thought it was best to start out on a good note, not letting and silly younger students behave badly just because it was first day back.. Particularly Potter she thought to herself. Potter the big headed despicable bully who she was sure would ask her out the moment she saw him, and she already knew her response. No.

She left her trunk in the prefects compartment and was walking through the carriages, stopping a third year ravenclaw boy from hexing his friend and reversing a nasty ear wax hex that another third year had placed on their younger sibling. Ah she thought to herself _making trouble all ready, the train has only just left. _After students seemed slightly more subdued and resumed chatting about the holidays instead of abusing their right to use magic again, lily made her way to where she knew her friends normally sat.

But Isabella, Sarah and Ella were nowhere to be seen. Hearing roars of laughter and applause, lily had a strange feeling she knew where her friends might be. She wandered along two compartments and was only slightly surprised by what she saw, around a dozen students where standing in or around a corridor watching a slightly rugged by nonetheless handsome boy with long dark brown hair make a toad dance in midair infront of him.

'Sirius Black!' she yelled out, the boy continued making the toad dance but looked devilishly out the corner of his eye. 'Exercising your power already Evans?, god we hoped the holidays would loosen you up a bit but boy were we wrong', she stared back at him, not letting him know he had got to her. 'Sirius I don't want to be doing this to my friends but what sort of example am I setting letting you torture animals' she said calmly. Sirius stopped the toad from dancing and smiled at lily 'I guess you would've been setting a cool one, but we know that chill isn't your thing so carry on with your head girl rubbish'

Once Lily and Sirius' showdown had finished, more than half of the members of the compartment separately said hello to Lily. Giving her hugs, congratulations and advice for the big year to come, once she had satisfactorily said her hello's she excused herself, promising to catch up with her friends later when they had some real time to relax.

Continuing along the carriage she thought about the scene that had just happened, Sirius being his usual daredevil self, peter sitting their shrieking of laughter obediently, Remus shaking his head in the corner and the various other female admirers who were there mainly to check out Sirius and James. James? Where was Potter? Lily had just noticed that the rat bag leader was no where to be seen in the busy compartment.

But Lily's questions were answered only moments later as she walked past a compartment containing a boy with a chiselled face and a messy head of jet black hair, leaning on his shoulder was a younger girl, with the same hair but much longer. Lily recognised her, it was James' cousin Helena, and she was sobbing on James' shoulder.

Lily stopped for a moment to watch in shock; James' potter was being affectionate, caring and showing .. god forbid..emotion. He even had a sad look upon his face too. What was this world coming to?

Walking backwards towards her compartment she noticed that her friends had moved back from the marauders compartment down a couple of compartments to their own. She opened the door and slumped down on the seat. 'It's great to sit down finally'.

Her friends murmured in agreement, she chatted with Sarah about her families holiday in Lithuania, she always found wizarding families holidays fascinating. She talked to Isabella about her muggle boyfriend, who thought she went to boarding school in France and then they all talked about Ella's life long crush on Sirius Black.

Whilst still immersed in conversation about the marauders, Lily tried to casually mention James. 'Oh yeh, I forgot to tell you, earlier I walked past and carriage and it was just Potter and his cousin Helena, she looked upset'. Sarah looked at Lily in shock, 'haven't you been reading the prophet?' lily felt stupid 'no well for the last week of the holidays we went to my grandparents, they'd be a little suspicious if owls started turning up'.

Sarah's face became less contorted 'sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but both of Helena's parents were killed by Lord Voldemort himself' Isabella and Ella's face looked saddened but not shocked; they clearly were already informed of this tragedy.

Suddenly lily felt guilty about thinking James was just pretending to have some sob story to make her like him or to seem like a nice guy, he had clearly been personally hurt by an attack from you-know-who himself. Lily made herself a resolution, 'I guess I should be a little more caring towards potter than I normally am' she asked her friends seeking reassurance. 'Yeh, that would probably be better, but then again he might die himself if you ever were nice to him' said Ella.

After another patrol and checking everyone was behaving appropriately (no one was), the Hogwarts express pulled into Hogsmeade. Lily assumed her head girl duties with the other prefects directing students to either the carriages or in the case of the first years towards Hagrid who took them on small boats.

'All right you filthy midgets, following this man here and keep your filthy little hands to yourselves' yelled out a voice Lily knew all to well. She turned around quickly 'Potter, don't speak to the first years like that' she frowned, the being nice to Potter thing would never work 'and Potter, only prefects have the responsibility of managing students'.

After firstly throwing his head back in a roar of laughter, James' gaze met hers. Lily looked at his with his eyes which just a few hours ago seemed full of sadness but now full of arrogance 'sorry to disappoint you Evans, but it seems you're wrong. I'm a prefect' and with that sentence he stuck out his silver badge. Lily's face twisted into complete shock 'I'm head boy'. Lily swore her heart skipped a beat but definitely not in a good way.

Lily continued directing the first years kindly towards the awaiting rowboats, 'just over here' she said gathering students 'don't worry its safe, stick together, four to a boat, hurry along now'. When all the first years seemed sorted she jumped in the last waiting carriage only to find her worst nightmare, potter. The other prefects were all talking rapidly about their first few hours of power, so only James seemed to notice her entrance into the carriage.

They remained silent the entire journey until they reached Hogwarts and as James jumped out his hand brushed lily's, she jumped lsightly, she felt her whole body become aware of what she was doing. James, seeming to notice her sudden awareness turned around and smiled at her before he walked into the castle leaning over his shoulder to yell at her 'Evans, now we're both prefects, will you go out with me?' and he kept walking, without looking back once. Lily was sure he wasn't even bothering for her answer as he sauntered up to castle.

'No' she muttered out loud. 'YES' she screamed inside her head.


	2. Chapter 2

'Pass me some treacle tart Padfoot' said James loudly over the table to his best friend. A handsome boy with dark brown hair that sat just a bit above his shoulders grinned back at him and passed over his desired dessert.

'Evans isn't going to like you any more if you become the size of a house prongs' Sirius said jokingly 'although she does have sympathy thing.. good thinking' he added as an after thought.

'shut up Padfoot, we both know perfectly well we can eat whatever we want and not end up like peter' James said and the two burst into laughter as the looked over at their small, rather chubby friend devour his cauldron cakes with an almost rat-like quality.

James continued 'plus, I've basically given up on Evans, I mean I still like her and all but honestly I'm over the chase, it's almost lost its fun'. Sirius mocked falling off the seat, grabbing onto to Remus' arm.

'Moony!' Sirius yelled 'moony!' 'What now Sirius?' casually asked the fourth marauder, Remus lupin, a tall boy who's handsome face and light brown hair were slightly ruined by a serious of scars running down one side.

'Moony!' continued Sirius 'prongs just said he's over Evans! Over lily Evans! Life goes on! Oh my... We will have to have a party now... Shame I might actually have some competition with the ladies now'.

Remus looked at Sirius for second, as if searching for a hint of a joke, but failing to find any flaws in Sirius' serious look he turned to look at James in disbelief. 'You're joking, over Evans?' he asked.

James casually put his hand through his hair messing it up; he could've sworn he heard some fifth year girls sigh. Smiling to himself he answered lupin's question 'ah, well, I simply said I wasn't going to pursue her anymore, and Padfoot nearly went into cardiac arrest, probably at the thought of not being Hogwart's most eligible bachelor'.

Sirius came back into conversation shooting at James 'no matter what you say James I'm still better looking' he grinned. 'Witches dig the bad boy look over the choir boy everytime'. James wasn't sure of the truths behind this statement, but he knew the Sirius definitely had the bad boy look going for him, his long messy hair, the grey eyes and the tough boy gaze. And James, knew he had the choir boy look too..the messy black hair, big hazel eyes and glasses gave the impression of a sweet innocent boy… until you knew him.

James looked up and Sirius, his best friend and smiled 'oh let the games begin... Start of term party this weekend is in order I think my fellow marauders'.

Peter started nodding his head like a sad maniac, after seven years still excited to be included, Sirius simply said 'oh it's on' and Remus shook his head, pretending to be morally above his friends bad behaviour but secretly he was very happy to be back at school with his friends, who understood him even if against his free will they were getting up to mischief.

James looked at his three best friends laughing, Sirius, the handsome delinquent and his partner in crime, Peter, his number one fan and Remus, the boy he knew would keep him out of getting expelled but not out of getting in trouble.. This is going to be the best year yet he thought.

At the end of the feast, after various speeches and warnings, the tables cleared and students began filing out to their common rooms. James stood up and started directing first years assumedly towards their respective common rooms. Well as long as they weren't rude he would, otherwise myrtle's bathroom was always and option.

Almost immediately after his opening his mouth he was interrupted 'this is going to be a long year isn't it potter, it is the prefect's duty to direct the first years towards their common rooms, don't deny the fifth years of their first chance to exercise their power, and Dumbledore wants to speak to us' cut across a pretty redhead.

James looked at her brilliant emerald eyes, milky cream coloured skin and beautiful dark red hair, a year ago he probably would've done something stupid to impress her but now he didn't really care. Shrugging he said 'Sorry Evans', she looked a little startled but began walking towards Dumbledore's office nevertheless.

James followed her silently lost in his own thoughts of the holidays and what he should do this weekend, although every time he imagined himself with that pretty blonde Ravenclaw girl she suddenly morphed into Lily Evans.

Kicking himself he kept walking. Awkwardly Lily Evans, probably trying to be polite asked him 'so how was your summer?' James awoke immediately from his little daydream and consciously stopped himself from blurting something out immediately. He was over Evans, over over over over her. Or at least he wanted it to come across that way.

After a few seconds pause he said 'oh yeh pretty good, mostly just me and Sirius hanging out and seeing friends…nothing that would interest you, how were yours?' James smiled to himself, casual tone, tick, calm, tick, relatively mature, tick, slightly vague, tick, slightly mysterious, tick.

Lily still a little surprised at James' calm and casual speech quickly replied 'oh, not too bad, I just hung out with mum and dad' as soon as she said it she was kicking herself inside. She'd sounded like a total bore. But before she could beat herself up any longer they were at Dumbledore's office 'acid pops' said lily to the gargoyle.

Once inside Dumbledore's office, and having taken a seat, Dumbledore briefed them on their roles as head boy and girl, the most intriguing of which to James was 'pre Christmas ball you will be responsible of organising' and the most interesting of which to lily was when Dumbledore offered his condolences to James about his aunt and uncle and James response of 'thank you professor, it's been pretty tough on everyone but I've stepped in to look after Helena so things should be alright, it would be naïve not to expect deaths in times like these'

Lily was shocked at James' response. _When did he get so god damn mature... and handsome_? Lily thought to herself. Finally after the various notes and things were explained Dumbledore said, 'oh yes, and finally, if you say 'gillyweed' to the painting of Sir Edgar Robertson about thirty feet from the portrait of the fat lady, you will find that you have your own private head student common room, I'm sure you will find it satisfactory for private study and relaxation' he finished with a twinkle in his eyes 'enjoy'.

As they walked down the corridors back towards the common room they casually discussed things Dumbledore had mentioned

… 'the prefect meetings sound like a drag'… 'I think Dumbledore's beard has grown around three inches'… 'We've three and a half months til the Christmas ball'… 'A head's common room sounds pretty cool' ...'tomorrow will be a killer'…'the weather was good in July'… 'did you see that hex?'

.. And so the conversation went on until the reached the portrait of Sir Robertson. James turned to lily 'we might as well check it out before head back to our dorms, we won't get a chance until after class tomorrow because tomorrow will be crazier than Snape when he's offered shampoo.

Lily looked back at James in slight disgust 'still targeting Severus I see, nothing's changed with you'. Her tone hurt him, and the way she said 'you' with such contempt made him want to curl up and hide. But James just shrugged, what did he care what Evans thought of him, _a lot_, his conscience told him. 'Gillyweed'.

The head's common room was about the size of a normal classroom, it's stone wall's were covered with assorted tapestries and shields with a large stone fire in the middle of one wall plus and assortment of large couches and armchairs, a few desks and some bookcases.

Off to one side through a wooden door, was a bathroom, with a nice spacious shower and separate toilet. 'I guess Dumbledore, assumed we'd be having friends in here, there are a lot of chairs for just us' James said casually.

'Yes, it's fantastic but I'm going to bed, night potter' said lily, James who was busy inspecting the assorted items in the bookshelves and paintings on the wall stopped himself from replying as she walked out of the room.

This annoyed lily.

James could tell this annoyed lily.


End file.
